“Sure we’ll get him,” confidently. “May take a little while.”
“Aw, hell!” snorted Lonnie. “You and Jack Ralston couldn’t foller a load of hay through a fresh snow.”
“Lonnie, I told yuh—” began Uncle Hozie.
“Yeah, I heard yuh,” interrupted Lonnie. “I’m not ridin’ him.”
Len smiled thinly.
“Thasall right, Hozie. You folks have kinda got the wrong idea of all this. I’m not an enemy of Joe Rich. I worked with him, didn’t I? In my business yuh don’t have to hate a man to arrest him. There ain’t nothin’ personal about me huntin’ for Joe. If he’s innocent, he ought to stay and prove it. Yuh can’t jist sneeze a couple of times and forget that five thousand dollars are missin’, can yuh?”
“No, yuh shore can’t, Len,” agreed Uncle Hozie.
Len didn’t stay long. His speech impressed all, except the three Flying H cowpunchers. They had no real reason for disliking Len Kelsey, except that he represented the law, and that he had succeeded Joe Rich. And they were loyal to Joe, even if he was guilty as charged. Theirs was not a fickle friendship; not something that merely endured in fair weather.
Uncle Hozie talked long and earnestly with the minister over the funeral arrangements, and together they went up the stairs to talk with Peggy. Laura left them and came down to the veranda, where Honey Bee beamed with delight.
“I was scared I wasn’t goin’ to see yuh,” he said softly. “How’s Peggy standin’ it?”